


Let Me Break You

by Akiko_Natsuko



Series: Reaper76 [68]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Broken Bones, Guilt, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Justice/Vengence, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Serious Injuries, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 17:31:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21058268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: Jack wasn't sure that he was going to be walking out of this. Which he was almost okay with. Almost. And if it had been Gabriel facing him, then he could have accepted it. Hell, he might have even welcomed it, knowing that it was what he deserved.The problem was, it wasn't Gabriel. Not really, not anymore.





	Let Me Break You

Jack grunted, head snapping to the side under the force of Reaper’s blow. If he had been anyone else that hit would have knocked him out for the count, as it was, his vision darkened worryingly for a moment, the hits beginning to add up now. He could taste blood, the coppery taste filling his mouth, and as he pushed his head up again, he licked his lips, before baring his teeth in a bloody grin as the Reaper paused to watch his reaction. “Is that all you’ve got?” He demanded. It probably wasn’t the best idea to antagonise Reaper when he had no means of fighting back, as there was no sign of his weapons or even his jacket in the small cell, and with his hands chained to the wall with chains that not even he had been able to break.

Still, there was something about the blank, owl-like mask that unnerved him, and it was easier to annoy him than to think about the man lost somewhere beneath Reaper’s cruel, inhuman exterior. He spat out a mouthful of blood, taking satisfaction in seeing the red splatter across the white, marking it, breaking the blankness. “Come on, I got worse from the agents that brought me in.” That wasn’t entirely a lie. His body was already healed from the explosion that had decimated his current hideout, leaving him stunned and trapped, and unable to escape the Talon agents that had swarmed him. However, the enthusiastic beating they had inflicted had left him barely able to walk, and as good as his body was, it was taking time to repair that damage. The healing effect of the serum slowing with age, and the fresh damage from Reaper was overwhelming it, and despite his outward confidence, he wasn’t sure that he was going to be walking out of this.

Which he was almost okay with.

Almost.

If it had been Gabriel facing him, then he could have accepted it. Hell, he might have even welcomed it, knowing that it was what he deserved. He’d known that from the moment he had crawled out of Zurich, believing that he was leaving the other man beneath the rubble, another life lost to his mistakes. And their first encounter, when he’d realised that Reaper and Gabriel were one and the same, Gabriel had made sure that he knew that he was responsible for everything that had happened. Those bitter, wounding words, hurting more than the damage that he had inflicted on Jack. Wounds that were still bleeding, for all that he had hidden the damage behind a mask, as he threw himself into trying to find answers, to give Gabriel some kind of justice, before he allowed the other man to have his revenge. He hadn’t got far, those who had the answers about what had happened to Overwatch had long since buried the truth, and if it had been Gabriel, he would have thrown himself and his failure at his feet and welcomed his fate.

The problem was, it wasn’t Gabriel. Not really, not anymore. He was sure that there were still traces of the man he had known somewhere behind that mask, but that was all they were traces. The Gabriel Reyes who had suffered through SEP at his side survived the Omnic Crisis alongside him and the strike team and made Blackwatch more than Jack could have ever imagined was gone. Jack wasn’t sure whether he had died in Zurich, and if the Gabriel he had faced that first time had been a ghost of the man he’d known, or if this was more recent. A slow, crawling encroachment of the monster that had taken root in the nanites binding him to life. Sarcasm becoming cruelty, fire and determination, becoming a single-minded fury that would see everything dead if it meant reaching his goals, and Jack wasn’t even sure that Reaper even remembered what Gabriel’s goals had been at this point.

It was why he couldn’t just give up here.

And it was why Reaper couldn’t break him.

Gabriel could have shattered him an instance, without laying a single finger on him, the only person in the world that still had that kind of power over him. Reaper was a different matter. He could hurt him, and Jack could feel the clawed fingers sliding across his neck in threat, and he fought the urge to swallow nervously, instead staring into the black pits that marked the other man’s eyes. Yes, he would bleed and break under Reaper’s tender mercies, and he might die here, a fruitless death that would be more than fitting for someone like him. But he wouldn’t break, and he wouldn’t have made amends. He wouldn’t have given Gabriel the justice he had been searching for, and that was the only thing Jack had left to hold on to, and he gathered himself.

“I’m sorry for this Gabe,” he murmured, feeling Reaper’s claws slice into his skin, blood beginning to ooze from the fresh wounds, as Reaper snarled at the use of the name he refused to acknowledge, and Jack groaned. It wasn’t entirely feigned, because there was a burn in his body as it tried to knit together this fresh damage, but it was exaggerated, masking his efforts as he jerked his knee upwards into Reaper’s groin. “But you should have chained me…” He trailed off, realising that he hadn’t connected with skin and bone, as the boy beneath his knee disintegrated, before far too solid hands gripped his leg and twisted. At that angle and balanced on one leg now, Jack was helpless to do anything, and he howled as Reaper wrenched his leg to the side, the bone-breaking under the assault.

It was as though Reaper had been waiting for him to fight back because Jack was still reeling, trying to keep his balance as the mangled leg was released when Reaper was on him. Claws rending his face, leaving trails of fire across his nose and cheek, and he could feel the blood trickling down his face as his head rattled off the wall behind him. But there was no respite. The blows and punches raining down on him with a fury that he could never have matched, even if he was able to move, and all he could do as he felt his collarbone shatter under the assault was ride it out, biting down on his lip, until he broke skin as he tried desperately to hold back the noises trying to bubble up. Not wanting to give the Reaper the satisfaction of hearing his pain, eyes watering, and vision blurring, as everything narrowed down to the brutal assault and the sharp

His body was on fire now, the serum no longer able to even try and match the damage that was being inflicted, and he coughed and choked on the blood filling his mouth, ribs alight, as Reaper’s attentions moved lower. He could almost ignore the blows themselves, as devastating as they were, as the pain blended in with the throbbing agony that was currently every inch of his body. What was harder to ignore, was the claws, inhumanly sharp, that were shredding his skin in the wake of the punches. The remnants of his body armour were falling away, slick with his blood and as his vision wavered in and out of focus, all he could see as he looked down was red.

_ You’re going to die here,_ a voice that was half Ana and half Gabriel echoed in the back of his mind, and Jack huffed a laugh. What did they expect him to do about it? Everything hurt. He was trapped. Hell, even if he could break away from the chains and the wall, he doubted that the throbbing mass that was his right leg would be able to support his weight. It would be a game of cat and mouse, and Reaper was already toying with him, the wounds he was inflicting designed to cause maximum pain without rushing him towards his death. As though Reaper was waiting for something, he realised belatedly, trying to lift his head, and succeeding just as an armoured elbow was smashed into his face, breaking his nose and the cheekbone from the feel of it, and he couldn’t stop the strangled cry that slipped free.

_Please just make it stop._

“Break.” It was the first time that Reaper had addressed him directly since stepping into the room, as though he had sensed the weakening in Jack’s defiance as he stepped forward. His voice a low whisper in Jack’s ear, and Jack let his head loll to the side so that he was looking at the other man, cursing the mask that prevented him from getting a good read on the other’s expression. Not that he needed to. He knew enough of how Reaper worked to know that even if he gave in and pleaded for his life, for mercy, for a quick end, it would just make him draw out the torture a little longer. And Jack wouldn’t give him that satisfaction, he couldn’t. Although even with his resolve, it still took him a couple of attempts to get his voice to work.

“N-no…” It wasn’t as steady as he would have wanted, even that single word enough to ignite his injured face, and he missed the snarled words that followed as white noise flooded his head.

The pain brought him back. Reaper’s claws tearing into his chest right above his heart, and he jerked, trying to pull back from the pain, no longer able to hold back his cries as Reaper pressed deeper and deeper, until Jack thought that maybe this was it. That Reaper was done toying with him. He hated the relief that thought brought him, and he was almost glad, when the movement stopped, the claws still deep in his flesh, a constant, burning reminder of how close to death he was. And who had his life in his hands, and he struggled to lift his head, blinking slowly, unsure whether the haze in front of his eyes was just from his fading body, or whether it was also the familiar, disintegration of his tormentor’s body.

“Break.” Each letter was punctuated with a jerk of the claws in his chest, and Jack was howling again, trying to pull away, only to realise his error as he put weight on his broken leg. It had been a long time since he’d had to feel the full brunt of a broken limb, as his healing abilities usually kicked in straight away, and he had forgotten how much it hurt. “Break, and it will stop,” Reaper all but purred the words against his throat, his other hand moving to trail a single clawed finger along the line of his neck, a promise, a threat.

A lie.

“N-no it won’t…” Gods it hurt to speak, to breathe, to think, but Jack gathered himself, struggling to focus on Reaper as pulled his head upright. “You…” The claws in his chest tightened, trying to shatter his resolve, to break his defiance. “You…won’t...give me m-mercy,” Jack managed to force out. He was breathless by the end, the world fading in and out around him, and he staved it off through stubbornness alone. “Y-you can’t b-b-break me, Reaper.” There was a growl, and for a moment Jack thought he had pushed too far, as the grip on his chest tightened further.

Then Reaper’s hands disappeared, and the other man stepped back. Jack wanted nothing more than to pass out, but there was a shift in the air that had the hairs on his arms standing upright, and bleary and disorientated he lifted his head. Trying to make out what Reaper was doing through increasingly clouded eyes and tensing as he watched clawed hands reaching for the mask that he had been cursing not long before. “W-what…?” He trailed off as Reaper removed the mask, giving him a clear albeit hazy view of the ruined features below, and his breath caught as Gabriel stared back at him. He was different, warm brown replaced by blood-red, and his skin had taken on an ashen tone, flickering and fading even as Jack watched, wisps of smoke rising from the surface, and yet unarguably it was Gabriel. Gabriel who lifted his hand and stared at the bloody claws, before meeting Jack’s gaze as he brought it to his mouth and lapped at the blood. “G-Gabe…”

“Reaper, can’t break you.” Jack’s heart ached at the sound of Gabriel’s voice, it was raspier than it had been but painfully familiar. It added weight to those words, and for the first time since he had woken in this room, Jack felt a pang of real fear, because Gabriel was watching him, lips curling in a malicious, knowing smirk. “He’s angry about that you know?” Gabriel was moving towards him, and for a moment his eyes burned brighter, an unnatural fire taking hold as the Reaper fought for control. “I’m glad though.”

Gabriel was in front of him now, so close that Jack could’ve reached out and touched him if his body had been listening to his commands, but he was locked in place, fear gripping him as he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from Gabriel. “Because, your mine not his, and I know what you didn’t tell him. What has you shaking in your boots right now.” Clawed fingers brushed his cheek again, and Jack flinched, bracing himself for the pain. But it didn’t come, instead, the touch was gentle and almost tender. Almost. Because Gabriel was grinning at him now, and it wasn’t a pleasant expression. It was the grin of a man who knew that he had won and that his prey had nowhere to go. “So, Jackie…” Jack went rigid, eyes wide at the half-forgotten nickname, as Gabriel stroked his cheek again, before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his lips. It was a weak imitation of the ones they’d once shared, and it stung against the cut that Jack had inflicted on himself, but it was devasting, Jack’s resolve crumbling even as Gabriel pulled back just enough to whisper. “Will you let me break you?”

“….Y-yes…”


End file.
